Adapt It treats different kinds of text in different ways. Knowing the differences among source, target, gloss, and navigation text is important for understanding how to use Adapt It.
Source text is the information that you want to translate using Adapt It. You normally obtain it from someone else, in a named, plain text file. The information in such a file is usually formatted according to a standard called Unified Standard Format Marking (USFM). USFM text files are still plain text files. Adapt It knows how to handle files containing USFM text formatting.
Target text is the translation that you want to create using Adapt It -- it is the text you are aiming to produce. Think of it as targeting your translation work so as to construct that text. So the target text is just another name for the adaptation text which you type as you do your work. In these helps, we use target text, translation or adaptation interchangeably -- all three expressions mean the same thing.
Gloss text is a translation of the source text generally in a third language. The gloss text assists the translator by giving another source for reference. The gloss text is a word for word or phrase for phrase translation of the source text. The gloss text follows the grammatical order of the source language.
Gloss text is useful for showing the meaning of the source text in a language different from either source or target texts. For example, the gloss text might be in a national language or a trade language. By displaying gloss text in a separate line and in a different color, Adapt It provides you with another tool in doing your adaptation. Gloss text is an optional feature and Adapt It does not require its use.
This is text which tells you about your location within an Adapt It document, and also what kind of USFM marking is present (but hidden from sight) at that location. This text usually has its own color (the default color is green), and the text is seen just above the top of each strip in the main window. Navigation text is for information purposes only, it is never something which you adapt and you normally cannot change it.
For example, when you are located at verse three of chapter 2 of a document, and a new paragraph starts there, the navigation text you see is 2:3 paragraph.